Features

1. Half football, half keep-away, and half tag. I know that doesn't add up, but after 15 minutes of Berserk, you'll be tired and a half.
2. The two ways to score points (touchdowns & capturing flags) militate against each other. Players find it difficult to focus on both aspects of the game at once.
3. Non-stop: each play continues until there is a touchdown.
4. In a subtle way, it is a great simulation game which parallels how we should be witnessing, not alone, with a team mentality.
5. My college students have taken this game to Christian camps all over the country, so feel free to teach it anywhere you like. You don't even have to ask permission, but I'd appreciate an e-mail, simply to know how far Berserk has traveled.

The Story Behind the Game

When I was a pastor in Illinois, my kids, their friends, and I often spent weekend afternoons in the winter playing games in our parochial school gymnasium. We would pull out all the athletic equipment and invent new games by combining various sports. This was our favorite. We called it Berserk, because that's how we felt as we ran around playing it.

Years later, when I taught a college course on personal witnessing, we held one class session in the gym, where I taught them to play Berserk. I planned this unusual class, because after they played, I wanted to point out to them two ways that I thought the game had similarities to witnessing:

After the two dozen students had learned the game and played it for half an hour, they lay down on the gym floor to catch their breath. Before I sprang my two bright ideas on them, I asked, "What parallels do you see between Berserk and what we have been learning in this course on personal witnessing and team evangelism?"

For the next 15 minutes, student after student came up with one brilliant insight after another. I never even mentioned my two ideas. Their's were so much better. I had no idea this goofy game had so much to teach us..

Play Berserk, and you'll see the parallels too.

Rules of Berserk

1. When played indoors, the field of play is a basketball court, although the side boundaries should extend to the walls on either side. A small gymnasium with walls on all four sides is best, because then you just let the ball bounce off the walls and there is no area that is out of bounds. Outdoors, an area about the size of a basketball court should be staked out.

2. There are two teams of four or five players each (If you want to try it with larger teams, give it a try, but note rule #6). The sides must be equal in number

3. Each player wears two "flags" of some sort which hang from the belt or pocket, one on each side of the body. Two-foot-long strings will work just fine.

4. Some kind of ball is used in the game. A football is preferred because of its erratic bounce. A frisbee would be a lot of laugh too.

5. The game consists of separate plays which begin with the snap of the ball from midcourt. At the beginning of plays both teams must align themselves along the center line as they see fit. However, the team without the ball may not enter the center circle until the ball is snapped, and the team with possession may place one player behind the line to receive the snap.

6. Teams score in two ways: (a) All flags torn from the opposing team score 1 point. Captured flags can be dropped to the ground, and no one may replace a fallen flag; (b) The team that crosses their end line with the ball in their possesion earns 7 points if there are four players per team, and 9 points if there are five players. (If the teams are bigger than 5, add 2 points per player to touchdowns.)

7. Before any team may cross their endline, they must complete at least one pass that is 12 feet or longer in distance. Passes less than 12 feet long are legal, but they do not qualify the team to score a touchdown. The direction of passes is of no importance, only the distance matters. There is no limit to the number of passes a team may throw during a possession.

8. The ball may be advanced by running, but no contact is permitted. The offense may not hold, run over people, or block as in football. The defense may not hold or tackle. What may you do? You may only get in the way of the ball carrier or possible pass receivers, as in a typical non-contact version of "keep-away." The moving screen which is illegal in basketball, is exactly what is legal in this game.

9. The play does not end when the ball carrier can no longer advance. When a ball carrier is obstructed from forward movement, he should head in another direction or seek a receiver.

10. When any pass is incomplete, the lose ball is a free ball. The team which recovers it has possession. Piling on and grabbing the ball out of someone's hand are not permitted.

11. After recovery of a lose ball, the team with possession must complete a 12-foot pass before they can score a touchdown. This is true even if they had the ball previously during the play and already completed a pass. Each new possession requires a new 12-foot pass.

12. Meanwhile, throughout the melee players may snatch flags from the opposing team's belts.

13. If the ball goes out of bounds, possession goes to the team on defense. That team will re-snap the ball from the point at which the ball left the field.

14. If a penalty is called by the referee, the non-offending team shall snap the ball from the point of infraction. If they had already completed a 12-foot pass during the possession immediately prior to the penalty, they need not pass again.

15. Every play ends in a touchdown, because play is continuous until a team crosses the endline with the ball.

16. Following each touchdown, the score will be tabulated by combining the amount for the touchdown (7, 9, etc.) and the points accumulated by capturing flags.

17. Following each play, all flags are gathered and re-positioned. After a breather, play ensues.

18. The team that is behind always gets possession of the ball at the beginning of a new play.

19. The game may end in three ways: (a) when one team reaches a predetermined number of points; (b) when a predetermined number of plays have been played; or (c) when both teams are totally winded or laughing too hard to continue.

© 1994 Philip M. Bickel